Redsave return! Now facing a £1,049,703 fine from HMRC

It has been a few months since we last felt the need to write about Redsave. If you are not familiar with Redsave and their rather dubious past, Redsave is a company which offers discounts on products purchased on their site, but by doing so customers sign up to a monthly subscription fee of £19.95. In 2007 this was buried in the terms and conditions, and plenty of customers didn’t realise they had signed up to this particularly onerous term or had actually realised they were paying the subscription fee until some months later.

Many disgruntled consumers took to various internet forums to voice their displeasure and Redsave fired off numerous take-down notices in an attempt to have these comments removed claiming that they were defamatory. The BBC ran a documentary and highlighted the issue for many others to realise what had been going on.

Redsave at the time claimed that it was only the minority that did not understand this particularly 'quirky' feature of their service. Interestingly, one of their customers took Redsave to the Small Claims Court and Redsave settled the matter in full the day before. Quite telling, we think.

Anyway, what have they been up to recently that has caused this latest piece? Well, the HMRC has been on their case and has recently hit them with a HUGE fine. It seems that Redsave were not paying tax on the £19.95 subscription payments their members were paying. Redsave claimed that this payment was similar to a non-refendable deposit (or a management fee for the customers account) and therefore did not attract any tax.

During the months when the site's users had made no purchases, figures show that Redsave banked approximately £6m (according to an obscure tax tribunal). The parent company of Redsave, NettexMedia Limited, had not been paying tax on these fees and was therefore fined by the HMRC a huge £1,049,703. Ouch. Redsave have already appealed against this fine and the decision. This appeal was rejected last month by the tribunal judge and the decision for a further appeal has to be made within a couple of days.

Anyone who currently has any dealings with Redsave or their parent company should really look at considering their own position as a matter of urgency. Whilst we are aware that it does not always tell the full story, the most recent filed accounts for the parent company should not fill you with any confidence if they lose their appeal or decide not to pursue this.

As you can see from the snapshot of their accounts, their cash at bank has diminished considerably since 2007 and the same goes for their total current assets. Should they have to pay this tax fine, their position would undoubtedly get much worse. Keep an eye on the accounts and status of their parent company over the next few days.

Is anyone still trying to resolve any issues with Redsave from a few years ago or do you have a more recent complaint? Get in touch with us - [email protected]

Thanks to knacker for the initial tip.

12 comments

3 years agoKeith T.

HUKD said this when faced with the redsave take down notice...
"We believe HotUKDeals members have a right to comment on their truthful experience with merchants and we are committed to defending that right vigorously even when faced with legal threats. We believe that if truthful but negative comments cannot be published for fear of legal action, the ability of consumers to inform themselves is fundamentally eroded."
However, it stinks of hypocrisy as if you have anything bad to say about the corruption, lies and security issues at HUKD itself, then you have a high chance of comments and threads deleted and there have even been examples where the HUKD lawyers writing threatening letters and 'take-down' notices.
BTW, wheres thehutgroup issues thread gone? More consumer discussion suppressed.

Want some more dirt on the MASSIVE CUNTS that run this operation? GO ON THEN.
- been taken to small claims more than once. Many times it has happened, and almost if not all they lost or settled. Sometimes when they settled they tried to claim it was because it was too far and too expensive to travel. That's secret code for "we knew we would lose".
- at least one unfortunate person working for them had to threaten to get paid and only got what they were owed just before it went all serious and legal.
- this tax situation is a great example of Max Walker's lack of business knowledge and skills, and his incredibly poor understanding of legal matters. The great fat twat tries to weasel out of every scrape he gets into using what he thinks are loopholes, then just gets hit even harder. He's been battered in small claims by pissed-off punters, and got done by the plod for trying to swerve a speeding fine. Wanker!
- fat cunt Max has a history of ropey businesses. Is or was barred from being a director. He was on Watchdog once before for some fucking stupid thing he tried to do, and boasted about a sideline selling used knickers in the back of porn mags. Pure class.
- this is all in pursuit of the kind of lifestyle he feels is suitable for a man of his stature - i.e massive ugly houses (lives in a giant pink house acquired through dodgy self-cert mortgage, YOU HAVE ZERO TASTE YOU WASTE OF OXYGEN), yachts and shiny cunt-mobiles. Speaking of which, they drive poncy vehicles like Bentley's but all hired because they can't afford to buy them, or get credit.
- His hideous whorebag of a partner, Rebecca Vowles, is a bleached-blonde botoxed horror show that'd give the cast of TOWIE a nightmare. She's an entitled, screeching lunatic, a raging alcoholic who habitually drives around in her huge car while pissed up and having screeching matches with Walker in Poole's more upmarket bars. She's not shy about voicing her issues with Walker's lack of sexual prowess either, just what you want to hear when you're paying too much for a drink. To be fair, Max's gut probably makes it difficult for him to find his tiny shrivelled cock, and fucking her must be like feeding a whale a tic-tac.
Feel sorry for anyone that's fallen victim to their terrible businesses. They are out to make a quick buck pure and simple and they don't give a shit who they step on to get there. There is zero remorse, they'll happily brag about people not reading the terms and letting them get away with charging £20 a month for fuck-all. If it lets them buy another skiing holiday or rent the Range Rover for another month who cares?

Strangely enough (however not surprising), Max Walker is not a current director of Nettex Media Limited and the only director is Rebecca Vowles. Rebecca Vowles was also a director of another company that Max is a director but she resigned a little while ago.
Max has quite a list of dissolved companies. At least 6 from what we can see but is still director at two others.

this man is on the road to disaster..... i wonder how people get so pulled into the materialistic side of life. no doubt his wife demands the highlife.....i spoke to him severall years ago after my now ex (serial shopperholiic) wife got tucked up for 20 pounds a month for over a year, silly cow. bought a snuggle twin blanket for her rugmunching daughter nd then girlfriend. it was the xmas must have gift, and she made me hunt online for it. shame it cost her 240 quid in the end...... cost me really as she didnt have a pot to piss in. anyway i threatened him with a visit from me and my biker pals and he folded and rang me offering me a holiday in spain. i told him he would never get away with it........how wrong am i. 8 years and still going..... and still got victims lining up like lambs to the slaughter who are so engrossed in the world of consumerism and cheap bargains that they just dive in head first.......will he burn in hell...... no.... he might get sunburned on his yacht in spain......